FOOD. 



beer. It i then oiled porter. The** fluid* vary much in itrvngth 

 and bitterness, according to the quantity of malt and hop* employed. 



Beer U the safest of these beverages for habitual UM ; but even this 

 may be indulged in too freely, and disease may be the result. Of the 

 various kinds of brer, that which ia to be mort commended, is the 

 weak form of bitter air, which is now so generally employed in the 

 households of London and its neighbourhood. Beer acts as a tonic 

 ou account of its bitter principle, as well as a stimulant, and is 

 frequently, ou this account, found to be a valuable addition to the 

 ordinary diet. 



The Oleaginous Group of foods is somewhat peculiar. They are 

 taken in various forms from both the vegetable and animal kingdoms, 

 and are known under the name of butter, oil, lard, suet, fat, &c. The 

 following formula will express the composition of this class of 

 bodies: 



Carbon . 

 Hydrogen 

 Oxygen . 



11 

 10 



1 



It will be seen that the oxygen ia in considerably less proportion 

 than in the foregoing substances of this group, and we may conse- 

 quently conclude that the hydrogen as well as the cnrbon is consumed 

 in the system in maintaining the animal heat. This is an important 

 point, as it frequently happens that the value of the heat-giving 

 group of foods is estimated by the quantity of carbon alone. That 

 oil has more power in maintaining animal heat than sugar or starch, 

 is seen in the fact that it is eaten in larger quantities by men who 

 live in cold regions than by those who live in the warmer parts of 

 the earth. Just as we pass north or south from the tropics, man 

 adds oil to his food according to the degree of cold to which he is 

 exposed. 



Oil seems also to be deposited in the tissues of man and other animals 

 as a source of combustible materials when these fail in their natural 

 food. Thus the Kumittantia get fat in summer to supply them with 

 their winter's store of fuel Hybernating animals, which are fat when 

 they commence their sleep, woke up quite thin. Their fat has been 

 exhausted in maintaining their animal heat during hybernation. 

 [ADIPOSE TISSUE.] 



Oil performs another function in the system. It is very evident 

 from its general presence in every tissue of the body that it bos an 

 action in connection with the development of the proteinaceous 

 tissues. It seems to assist their development, to act as a kind of 

 preparation for their growth. In this way its curative action in 

 certain forms of disease may be explained. There is no doubt of the 

 beneficial action of cod-liver oil in scrofulous diseases, and its action 

 can only be explained on the above supposition. In connection with 

 the use of cod-liver oil it may be stated that animal oils appear to be 

 in a different physical condition of aggregation from vegetable oils, 

 and are certainly more readily digested and appropriated by the 

 system. 



The vegetable oils chiefly used as food are those obtained from the 

 Olive (Olea JSvrojuta) and the Almond (Amygdalui dulcit). Many 

 seeds, as the Cocoa-Nut (Cocot nucifera), Almond (Amygdala*), Chest 1 

 nut (C'attanta), Walnut (Juglani), Hazel-Nut (Corytut), Brazil-Nut 

 (Bcrlholletia), contain oil. 



The fat of animals is the great source of oleaginous food from the 

 animal kingdom. 



We now come to speak of the Nutritious, Proteinaceous, or Nitro- 

 genous articles of diet. The substance called Protein [PROTEIN] is 

 the basis of these. It is the first element that appears in the develop- 

 ment of the vegetable cell. It is consequently universally present in 

 plant*. It also constitutes the chief material of the tissues of animals. 

 It assumes in both kingdoms various forms, and is called albumen, 

 fibrine, and casein, according to its physical and chemical properties. 



Some animals derive this constituent of their bodies directly from 

 the vegetable kingdom, as all the herbivorous and graminivorous 

 creatures; others derive it indirectly from the plant through the 

 animal, as the various forms of Carnirora. Man obtains his supply of 

 protein from both sources. As a sect has arisen of persons who 

 deny the propriety of man's taking animal food, it may be well to 

 examine the evidence on which bis claim to be regarded as a flesh- 

 rating animal rests. We shall dismiss the sentimental objection, that 

 life ought not to be taken as unworthy of serious refutation, as every 

 one must feel that for carnivorous animals to prey upon lower animals 

 is a natural law. 



" In the first place, the experience of the races and nations of men 

 who partake of animal food U decidedly in its favour. Amongst the 

 northern and European nations this practice is universal ; ami it is 

 precisely amongst these people that we sec the greatest amount of 

 physical power, and moral and intellectual development existing. 

 Amongst these nations, those individuals and classes who partake 

 moat largely or exclusively of a vegetable diet, are alike physically, 

 intellectually, and morally degraded. It is a well-established fact, 

 that amongst those classes who get the least animal food, as also in 

 those public establishments where meat is only spsringly allowed, 

 mortality is greatest, and disease is most rife. One of the most 

 common forms of disease generated by an exclusively vegetable diet 

 is scrofula, and when traceable to this csuse, the mort speedy remedy 



FOOD. wo 



is the addition .if animal food to the diet There are also many 

 other forms of disease produced by the want of animal food, which 

 require for their cure but an abundant supply of the needed material. 

 I need not, I am sure, specify facts to verify this statement. The. 

 experience of every medical man would confirm it ; and there is no 

 Mirguon or physician connected with the great medical charities of 

 this country, but has every day, unfortunately, ample opportunities 

 of witnessing the ill-effects of a vegetable diet, and the benefit, in 

 such cases, of the administration of animal food. 



"Nor are we at a loss in accounting for the beneficial act 

 the flesh of animals as food. From what I have before said, it will 

 be recollected that the muscles and other tissues of animals are 

 composed principally of protein ; so that they truly constitute the 

 most nutritious kind of diet It has also been found, not alone as a 

 matter of general personal experience, but by direct experiment, that 

 aiiimal food is more digestible than vegetable food. The experiment* 

 to which I allude are those performed by Dr. Beaumont of America, 

 on a man that had received a gun-shot wound in such a position as 

 to form a perforation into his stomach. This wound never h- 

 and enabled Dr. Beaumont to perform the experiments alluded to. 

 By placing various kinds of food in the stomach of this man, he was 

 enabled to ascertain how long each required to digest ; and it was 

 found that the flesh of animals was much more digestible than any 

 of the more nutritious forms of vegetable food, as bread, and the 

 preparations of flour. 



"Could we not find reasons for partaking qf animal food in ita 

 nutritiousness and digestibility, we might find ample justifi 

 from the structure of map as compared with some of the lower 

 animals. To the comparative anatomist it is sufficient that he knows 

 the structure of the teeth, jaws, or stomach of an animal, to tell 

 whether it fed on vegetable or animal food; and when he finds the 

 structure that characterises the one or the other combined, ho like- 

 wise knows th.it the animal will require both kinds of food. Let us, 

 then, for one moment glance at the structure of the teeth, jaws, and 

 stomach of vegetable-feeding animals, and compare them with 

 creatures feeding entirely on animal food. We may take tin- 

 ruminant animals, as the sheep and the ox, as specimens of pure 

 vegetable-feeding animals. On examining their teeth it will be found 

 that they have broad surfaces, made rough for the purpose of nibbing 

 on each other, and between those teeth the grass anil grain they eat 

 are well ground before they are swallowed. In order that these teeth 

 may be moved with facility over each other, the jaw, in addition to 

 the up and down movement, which is essential to the reception of the 

 food into the mouth, has a lateral movement, by which the tritiu 

 of the food between the teeth may be effected. The food thus 

 prepared passes down a long oesophagus, or gullet, into a compli 

 bog or stomach. In the ruminants, though not in all vegetable- 

 eating animals, a process of digestion or maceration is carried on 

 previous to the final mastication of the food between the teeth, and 

 its ultimate digestion in the stomach. 



" If we turn now to the structure of flesh-eating animals, of which 

 the Carnirora, embracing such animals as the lion and the 

 may be taken as the type, we shall find that instead of teeth furnished 

 with broad surfaces, they have teeth with sharp points for holding 

 and cutting their food. Their lower jaw has no lateral mm 

 but a powerful up and down action, by which their sharp teeth are 

 brought over each other and made to act in dividing their food, some- 

 thing in the way of the .blades of a pair of scissors when used in 

 cutting. In passing to the stomach, we find the gullet short, and the 

 stomach small and simple in .its form, adapted for food that is read My 

 digested and speedily conveyed into the system. 



" On an examination of these organs in man, it will be found tli.it 

 they are a true mixture of these two classes. His teeth are partly 

 adapted for grinding, whilst some of them are supplied with the sharp 

 projections which ore characteristic of the Carnirura ; thus evident 1 v 

 adapting them for the mastication of both vegetable and animal 

 A slight lateral movement of the lower jaw with the up and down 

 action is expressive of the subserviency of his structure to a mix. .1 

 diet. In the stomach also we find indications of the same interme- 

 diate position in its structure ; and the same conclusion is foiv.-d upon 

 us, that it is part of the apparatus of on animal intended for subsisting 

 upon a diet composed of animal and vegetable substances. 



" That man can live on food derived entirely from plants, or entirely 

 from animals, is a well-known fact. The natives of many j.:. ; 

 Asia never eat animal food, whilst the Hudson's liny hunter, some < 

 in the northern parts of the world, and the Guachos of tho Pampas 

 of America, seldom or never have vegetable food ; but neither the 

 physical, moral, nor social condition of either the one or the other 

 would prompt the suggestion that man attains his highest develop- 

 ment exclusively on either vegetable or animal diet In the various 

 positions in which man is placed in tho world, there can be no doubt 

 that the relative quantities of flesh to food derived from plants, may 

 vary much with great advantage ; but there seems to bo no position in 

 which man in health can be pronounced to be the better with abstinence 

 from either the one or the other kind of food. That man does subsist- 

 on either exclusively only proves the great range of his adaptation to 

 the varying conditions in which he may bo placed on the surface of 

 the earth ; but certainly it is no proof of his labouring under a 



